1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an inkjet recording apparatus that records information on a recording medium such as paper by ink ejected through nozzles.
2. Related Art
A recording head in an inkjet recording apparatus has a nozzle face on which a plurality of nozzles ejecting ink is formed. Cleaning of this nozzle face is required in order to prevent circumstances where it is not possible to eject ink or where the ink ejection direction is altered, due to ink and foreign matter such as dust adhering to the vicinity of the nozzles.
In relation to cleaning of a nozzle face, a technique is known for removing ink adhering to the nozzle face by carrying out cleaning (wiping) of the nozzle face with a wiper member.
More specifically, a front end of the wiper member abuts against a recording head so as to bend, and then moves in a direction along the nozzle face with the front end bent, thereby cleaning the nozzle face. Accordingly, a load is applied to a motor which drives the wiper member, from the time that the front end of the wiper member abuts against the recording head until the wiper member has formed a prescribed bent shape.
An inkjet recording apparatus is known which includes a plurality of recording heads and a plurality of wiper members, wherein the wiper members are driven by a single motor (drive source).
In the above described inkjet recording apparatus, each of the plurality of wiper members abuts simultaneously against each of the plurality of recording heads. Therefore, loads are applied simultaneously to the single motor (drive source) which drives the plurality of wiper members (in other words, a large load is applied to the motor).
An object of the present invention is to provide an inkjet recording apparatus which reduces a load acting on a drive source which drives a plurality of wiper members.